When, a few minutes later, that proud sad beauty, Lady Jane, followed by her maid, sailed rustling into the Window dressing-room--I call it so in preference--and there saw, by the light of a pair of wax candles, a stately figure seated on the sofa at the further end in grey silk draperies, with its feet on a boss, she paused in an att.i.tude of sublime surprise, with just a gleam of defiance in it.
"How d" y" do, Jenny, my dear?" said a voice, on which, as on the tones of an old piano, a few years had told a good deal, but which she recognised with some little surprise, for notwithstanding Lady Alice"s note accepting the Baronet"s invitation, he had talked and thought of her actually coming to Marlowe as a very unlikely occurrence indeed.
"Oh! oh! Lady Alice Redcliffe!" exclaimed the young wife, setting down her bed-room candle, and advancing with a transitory smile to her old kinswoman, who half rose from her throne and kissed her on the cheek as she stooped to meet her salutation. "You have only arrived a few minutes; I saw your carriage going round from the door."
"About forty minutes--hardly an hour. How you have filled up, Jane; you"re quite an imposing figure since I saw you. I don"t think it unbecoming; your _embonpoint_ does very well; and you"re quite well?"
"_Very_ well--and you?"
"I"m pretty well, dear, a good deal fatigued; and so you"re a wife, Jennie, and very happy, I hope."
"I can"t say I have anything to trouble me. I am quite happy, that is, as happy as other people, I suppose."
"I hear nothing but praises of your husband. I shall be so happy to make his acquaintance," continued Lady Alice.
"He has had to go up to town about business this morning, but he"s to return very soon."
"How soon, dear?"
"In a day or two," answered the young wife.
"To-morrow?" inquired Lady Alice, drily.
"Or next day," rejoined Lady Jane, with a little stare.
"Do you _really_, my dear Jane, expect him here the day after to-morrow?"
"He said he should be detained only a day or two in town."
Old Lady Alice shook her incredulous head, looking straight before her.
"I don"t think he can have said that, Jane, for he wrote to a friend of mine, the day before yesterday, mentioning that he should be detained by business at least a week."
"Oh! did he?"
"Yes, and Jekyl Marlowe, I dare say, thinks he will be kept there _longer_."
"I should fancy _I_ am a better opinion, rather, upon that point, than Sir Jekyl Marlowe," said Lady Jane, loftily, and perhaps a little angrily.
The old lady, with closed lips, at this made a little nod, which might mean anything.
"And I can"t conceive how it can concern Sir Jekyl, or even you, Lady Alice, what business my husband may have in town."
It was odd how sharp they were growing upon this point.
"Well, Sir Jekyl"s another thing; but _me_, of course, it does concern, because I shall have to give him up his room again when he returns."
"What room?" inquired Lady Jane, honestly puzzled.
"_This_ room," answered the old lady, like one conscious that she drops, with the word, a gage of battle.
"But this is _my_ room."
"You don"t use it, Lady Jane. _I_ wish to occupy it. I shall, of course, give it up on your husband"s return; in the meantime I deprive you of nothing by taking it. Do I?"
"That"s not the question, Lady Alice. It is _my_ room--it is _my dressing_-room--and I don"t mean to give it up to _any_ one. You are the last person on earth who would allow _me_ to take such a liberty with _you_. I don"t _understand_ it."
"Don"t be excited, my dear Jenny," said Lady Alice--an exhortation sometimes a little inconsistently administered by members of her admirable s.e.x when they are themselves most exciting.
"I"m not in the least excited, Lady Alice; but I"ve had a note from you," said Lady Jane, in rather a choking key.
"You have," acquiesced her senior.
"And I connect your extraordinary intrusion here, with it."
Lady Alice nodded.
"I do, and--and I"m right. You mean to insult me. It is a shame--an _outrage_. What do you mean, madam?"
"I"d have you to remember, Jane Chetwynd (the altercation obliterated her newly-acquired name of Lennox), that I am your relation and your senior."
"Yes, you"re my cousin, and my senior by fifty years; but an old woman may be very impertinent to a young one."
"_Compose_ yourself, if you please, _compose_ yourself," said Lady Alice, in the same philosophic vein, but with colour a little heightened.
"I don"t know what you mean--you"re a disgraceful old woman. I"ll complain to my husband, and I"ll tell Sir Jekyl Marlowe. Either you or I must leave this house to-night," declaimed Lady Jane, with a most beautiful blush, and eyes flashing lurid lightnings.
"You forget yourself, my dear," said the old lady, rising grimly and confronting her.
"No, I don"t, but _you_ do. It"s perfectly disgusting and intolerable,"
cried Lady Jane, with a stamp.
"One moment, if you please--you can afford to listen for one moment, I suppose," said the old lady, in a very low, dry tone, laying two of her lean fingers upon the snowy arm of the beautiful young lady, who, with a haughty contraction and an uplifted head, withdrew it fiercely from her touch. "You forget your maid, I think. You had better tell her to withdraw, hadn"t you?"
"I don"t care; why should I?" said Lady Jane, in a high key.
"Beatrix, dear, run into my bed-room for a moment," said "Granny" to that distressed and perplexed young lady, who, accustomed to obey, instantly withdrew.
CHAPTER XXI.
Lady Alice in Bed.
"We may be alone together, if _you_ choose it; if not, _I_ can"t help it," said Lady Alice, in a very low and impressive key.
"Well, it"s nothing to me," said Lady Jane, more calmly and sullenly--"nothing at all--but as you insist--Cecile, you may go for a few minutes."